65% of businesses consider phone calls to be their most valuable source of leads.  This makes sense because a phone call gives you the opportunity to engage directly with a potential customer or client.  While creating a relevant ad, developing a targeted keyword strategy, and designing a conversion-friendly landing page to generate leads is a strong initiative and the basis of paid search advertising, if you aren’t tracking calls then you’re not seeing the entire picture and could be leaving money on the table. 

Many things are considered when an architect designs a golf course.  Elevation, undulation, trees, water, length, angles, and more all establish how a hole and an entire course should be played.  In this sense, a golf course and a SERP (search engine results page) are quite similar.  If you do the things that you are supposed to, you’ll be able to navigate the course with a successful score.  This means accurate driving and good putting on the golf course, and likewise, it means search engine optimization and content creation on your website.  Now there are other factors that can seem to influence the difficulty of a golf course: newer, bigger drivers, wind, technologically advanced golf balls, playing from closer tees, and more can all, in theory, make the game easier.  But the fact is the original design still dictates your strategy, and there is no direct correlation between these variables and the difficulty or ease of the course.  This is also true when it comes to your website’s organic rankings and the impact that Google AdWords does, or doesn’t have.  Simply put, if you tee off with your brand new driver on the first hole, it doesn’t mean you’re going to win The Masters, and likewise, if you spend a million dollars on AdWords, your organic rankings aren’t going to shoot to the top of the page.  However, there are ways that paid search can influence the organic landscape.

There are many things that on their own serve a distinct and useful purpose.  However when you combine two things you can achieve synergistic results.  Simply put, a hamburger is good; cheese is good, a cheeseburger is better.  The different digital applications that your business can leverage today are growing exponentially, and integrating them into one powerful strategy is easier than ever.  Two of the most common and useful platforms are your Google My Business Page and Google AdWords, and now they can be integrated to create even more opportunities. 

The E.J. Ourso College of Business at Louisiana State University has confirmed BlinkJar Media as one of the recipients of the 2017 LSU 100 list. The LSU 100 identifies, recognizes and celebrates the 100 fastest growing Tiger-owned or Tiger-led businesses in the world. The purpose of the LSU 100 is to celebrate the success of former LSU graduates and to recognize the impact of LSU alumni on the local, regional, and national economy.

There are a lot of umbrella terms out there, especially when it comes to technology.  Often these words, phrases and jargon get interchanged, used inaccurately, and can be confusing.  In the marketing world which is overlapping more and more with technology, this is a common occurrence; and the speed at which strategies and devices are evolving, this is understandable.  Two practices that are vital in today’s digital landscape, SEO and SEM can be easy to mix up, and while they are similar, they are still different.  Just like every shortstop is a baseball player, not every baseball player is shortstop.  Search engine optimization and search engine marketing follow this same transitive pattern.  SEO is SEM, but not all SEM is SEO.  Let’s take a closer look at the differences between the two.

If you’ve ever taken a road trip, you essentially have two options: the most direct way and the scenic route.  Now, no matter what your preference may be, they each have one thing in common; the destination.  Advertising and marketing are very similar.  Of course on our hypothetical road trip, the scenic route may offer better views and different experiences, but it also costs more in terms of time and fuel, and we eventually (hopefully) end up in the same place.  Taking the “scenic route” with your ad dollars can be an expensive mistake.  Avoiding unnecessary elements that consume time and money is crucial for an effective campaign that provides an ROI. 

If you’ve ever sat in a meeting focused on your website or your digital marketing efforts you’ve likely noticed that there are enough terms, buzzwords, and jargon to make you dizzy.  Wrapping your head around this lingo can be a challenge.  The value behind these metrics and the definitions behind their terminology is critical to your overall strategy; however you need to not only know what each term means, you need to understand the trends, goals, and impact of each measureable. 

Coincidence and context can be easily confused.  If you see someone wearing the same shirt as you, that could strike you as quite the coincidence.  However, if you’re at a sporting event and most people are cheering for the same team, seeing a person with a matching jersey may not be that surprising.  In context, a coincidence can quickly be revealed to be anything but.  The Google Display Network has brought this revelation to digital advertisers, and can be a powerfully effective tool.

This is a good time of the year to look back across our most recent calendar of experiences.  There are memories and lessons that we can reflect upon, but also memories and lessons that can help us plan.  Maybe it’s something we would do differently, or something we would do more of; but no matter the case, they can be put to good use.  This has been true for marketing and advertising since the first ad was purchased in 1836 in the French newspaper, La Presse, and is even more imperative now in the digital world. 

Arnold Palmer won his last major in 1964; however as he became a legend in the game that was developed in 1574 at St. Andrews in Scotland, this young man from Latrobe, Pennsylvania captured the nation’s attention and took golf by storm in the late 1950’s.  Over 60 years later his undeniable brand, infectious smile, and enchanting stories have been a staple at every golf course, in every pro shop, and during every golf tournament.  Palmer claimed 95 professional wins including:

Have you ever had the feeling of déjà vu?  Something you’ve experienced before (or at least believe you’ve experienced before).  It comes in many forms.  Certain social situations are common. Even seeing an actor in a show you’re binge watching on Netflix; convinced you’ve seen him or her in something recently, the more often they are on the screen the more it digs at you, until finally you have to IMDB them.  Now you’re really down a rabbit hole and it’s not who you thought it was, but now you know where they went to high school, who their brother married, and…what’s that?  The shoes you were shopping for the other day?  How did those get there?  Your déjà vu just gave you déjà vu.  And it’s all thanks to the Google Display Network. 

Four stars, two thumbs up, top ten.  We have a lot of ways to rate a lot of different things.  Whether its David Letterman’s list, Siskel and Ebert’s opinion, or the BCS, knowing what goes into these rankings, ratings and scores can be challenging.  Of course 2 of the previously mentioned 3 are strictly subjective; but the recently expired BCS and its chaotic formula parallels another rating system that can be a powerful tool for your business, the Google AdWords Quality Score.